Keeping Schtum
by PenguinTimes
Summary: "I'm gonna ask you again, nicely. And then the third time it's not gonna be very nice- for you." Mendez assaults Lorna. Rated M for rape and dark themes.
1. Chapter 1

"**I'm gonna ask you again, nicely. And then the third time it's not gonna be very nice- for you." Mendez assaults Lorna. Rated M for rape and dark themes.**

* * *

"I told you, I don't know what she does." Lorna shook her head slightly as she tried to keep her voice and her nerve from cracking. "I drive, and I do what I need to do. I can't help you because I really don't know." She sensed Pornstache's hand tighten on the headrest behind her, and leaned forward. "So you do whatever. Can't tell you what I don't know." He chuckled softly, releasing his grip to gently, menacingly brush the hair from her face. She shut her eyes tight, her skin almost burning from his touch.

"Undo your seatbelt, inmate." His smile was sinister. A tear leaked down Morello's cheek, left to leave a tiny track down her skin. She didn't move. Stripping off his jacket, Mendez turned in his seat to look his charge. "Undo your seatbelt," He repeated, patting his holster as if to remind her of her place. "Or we'll have to do it the hard way." Lorna complied with shaking hands, her face crumpling as the futility of protesting crushed her her, the weight stealing her breath and forcing her heartbeat to quicken. He ordered her to climb from the driver's seat to the row behind, and followed her. His pulse had also heightened, but out of arousal rather than fear.

"Please," Her voice came out as a quiet whimper." Please, don't do this. I don't know how Red does it, I really don't." Pressing the slight woman onto her stomach, Pornstache let his hands trail all over her frame, coming to rest on her hips. He slipped his fingers into the wasteband of her pants, and Lorna began to cry aloud, incoherent pleads mingled with the sobs.

"Oh believe me, Morello," Mendez chuckled as he pulled away the thin fabric that separated her skin from his. "Red is the last woman on my mind right now."

* * *

The muttered threats of what Mendez would inflict upon her if she talked to anyone about their 'little chat' continued to ring in Lorna's ears as she re-entered the prison. Her doe eyes, reddened and puffy, still brimmed with tears and she attracted several glances and raised eyebrows as she passed through The Suburbs to get to the bathroom.  
Not bothering to strip off her beige clothes, Lorna stepped into a shower cubicle and turned on the water. Jets of water, nearly too cold to bare, soaked through her uniform and flattened her dark curls to her back. Lorna pulled the curtain shut, sank to her knees and choked on a sob, her tears lost to the rivulets of freezing water.

* * *

"Nicky, where is Lorna?" The Russian accent caught the attention of the entire table. Nichols threw up her hands in exasperation. She hated how everyone expected her to know where Morello was even after they had stopped fucking.

"How the fuck would I know? I'm not her keeper." Red rolled her eyes, sliding into the empty seat. She had finished serving dinner and had left her team to finish cleaning up- she was done for the night.

"I saw her in her bunk right before dinner call," Yoga Jones piped up. "She said she's not feeling well. Looked kinda rough too, if you ask me. No make-up or nothin'. Like her chi is unbalanced."

* * *

If the promised torture of hell was transported to Earth, this was it. She felt raw, as if her skin had been ripped to shreds to expose the layers of vulnerability underneath. Her optimism had been torn apart, her dignity violated and left to collapse from the inside. She tried not to cry, but her self-issued commands were futile, and when the tears fell they burned her skin.  
He had smacked her around a bit, in places where the marks wouldn't be visible, but other than that she didn't really hurt- not physically, at least.  
Even so, her heart felt heavy. She didn't want to die, but she didn't particularly want to be alive either. There was nothing that would help right now, apart from going back in time to a place where sex was consensual and her defences had not been breached.

"Hey, kiddo." The voice brought her out of her reverie, but she didn't turn over on her bunk to face its owner. She'd have recognised that Russian tone anywhere. Red sat on the edge of the bed, and reached over to feel her forehead. The hand quickly withdrew as Lorna flinched violently at her touch, pulling her blanket tighter around her body, clothes still wet from her shower, as if it could protect her from all worldly evils.

"I, uh, I think I have a cold." She sniffed, her voice shuddering with held tears. Red's eyes narrowed.

"Is that any wonder, if you're going to get into bed with soaking-wet clothes?" No reply came, and the Russian sighed. "Listen; I'm going to get you some dry khakis, and then you're going to tell me why you've decided that getting pneumonia is a good life choice for you. Okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Red stood and started sifting through Morello's cupboard.

"Nothing happened, I told you." Her deadpan pitch of voice was such a deep contrast of her usual, bubbly personality that Red paused for a moment.

"Don't bullshit me, Lorna." Her words might have made the brunette flinch if not for their somewhat motherly tone. "Sit up, you need to get warm before you _do _catch a chill." Morello did as she was told, looking straight ahead at nothing in particular.  
"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"I- I can't." Came the stuttered reply. Red's brow furrowed.

"Is that because _you _don't want to tell me, or because someone else doesn't want you to?" Their eyes connected, briefly, for the first time, before Morello looked away, blushing. There was a pause, and the redhead helped her daughter out of her wet shirt, wrapping her tightly in a dry towel. A few seconds later, and she was dressed in a dry t-shirt.

"Both, I guess..." The reply finally came. Red nodded. The sickening suspicion was rising in her stomach like bile, equally bitter.

"Are you hurt?" Lorna shook her head.

"I can't tell you." She repeated.

"I am not asking what happened, I'm simply asking whether or not you might need some aspirin. It's a simple question."

"But- I-" She paused. "A little. My back-"

"Show me." Biting her lip and checking around to make sure no one else would see, Morello twisted round and sat facing away from Red. She let the matriarch lift her shirt at the back, her face crumpling as gentle fingers touched the faint bruising along her ribcage. She had always bruised easily.  
Red's hands guided her back round, and cupped her face so that their eyes met.

"I shouldn't have told you," She whispered. "He said-"

"You're safe. These bruises, they are from being pinned down, yes?" Lorna nodded, ashamed. Red tried to keep her voice confident and calm, but the words came out as a whisper. "Did he rape you?" Fresh tears spilled from Morello's eyes.

"I didn't tell him anything, I swear." Her choked words confirmed Red's suspicions, and the truth came crashing down. She felt sickened, but swallowed her feelings to comfort her daughter. She pulled Lorna close as she began to sob, her heart sinking.

"It's okay, it's okay," She repeated. "I trust you. But it doesn't matter right now. You need to report this." Lorna shook her head hard, pulling away from Red's grasp. She felt as if she were suffocating, she couldn't _breathe_.

"No no no, don't," She moaned. "Please, don't make me. He'll hurt me." Red shushed her gently, withdrawing and holding her hands up to show Lorna that she wouldn't touch her again if she didn't want.

"Alright, ребенок, I won't make you. Finish getting dressed, and we'll talk."

Red watched Lorna swap her wet pants for dry ones, trying not to look at the bruises decorating her pale thighs.

Something needed to be done. Mendez needed to be taken down.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading (: I'm not sure if this will get a lot of interest seeing as Vauseman seems to be the popular pairing, but I just love the relationship between Morello and Nicky, as well as the way Red looks out for all her girls. **

**Please do review (: Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm so sorry for how long it's taken me to write this chapter. I've been crazy busy! Thank you all for the brilliant reviews, they made me really enthusiastic to carry on with this fic (:**

* * *

"Nicky, we should talk." Red approached the wild-haired woman, one hand on her hip. Nicky was pacing back and forth in a manner that resembled a caged animal; something that Red considered kind of ironic considering their incarcerated status.

"What about, Red?" About the way you sold Tricia down the river to Caputo even though she's supposed to be your family? About how she gets to detox alone in SHU with no one there to tell her it's gonna be okay?"

"Nicky, I'm not here to talk about-"

"What if it had been me, huh?" Nicky threw up her hands in irritation. "I mean, why wouldn't you, if we really mean so little to-"

"Mendez raped your girlfriend." Red interrupted. Her steely gaze and coldly-spoken words stopped her surrogate daughter dead in her tracks.

"I- what?" The chef ran a hand through her crimson locks, and leant against the wall.

"The fucker took her out in the van. There were no witnesses, and she won't go to medical." She leaned forward, and cupped Nicky's face in her hands. "You need to convince her. That _cunt _cannot get away with doing this to one of my girls." She hissed, shaking with quiet rage. Nicky shook her head, eyes wide as she tried to process the news.

"W-why would Pornstache rape Lorna?" The older woman looked away, and Nicky thought she could almost perceive guilt in her eyes.

"He's trying to find a new channel to import his drugs. I think he may have been trying to find out how I import my... Products." Nicky's expression changed from shock to anger in a heartbeat.

"This is because of you? Fuck, Red!" The Russian shook her daughter hard.

"You can throw the blame around later." Her blue eyes were full of burden, and her tone was almost of a begging nature. "Please, Nicky. You must do this. For Lorna. I left her with Norma so she wouldn't be alone, but what she really needs is you." Nichols' eyes softened, and she nodded. Her and Lorna's relationship may not have been sexual in nature any longer, but there would always be sentiment between the two of them. Although she would never admit it to anyone, her feelings towards Morello were strong, and she couldn't remember the last time she'd cared so much about someone who was essentially a fuck-buddy. She wanted to cuddle her close, and then screw her brains out.

Lorna was unlike anyone she'd met before. Funny, sweet, and beautiful, and with a slight naivety, she was able to make her feel needed.  
And now Nicky was needed more than ever, in a way that no one had depended on her ever before.

* * *

Morello sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, Norma perched awkwardly beside her. At one point the mute had tried to pat the woman comfortingly on the shoulder, but Lorna had flinched. She didn't try again.

"Hey, Norma." Nicky's tone was uncharacteristically cautious. "I got it, thanks." Red stood behind Nichols, nodding to Norma as she left the three of them in privacy. It was movie night, and most of the other women were out of the block. Nicky sat on the end of the bed, arms-length from Lorna.  
"Red told me that you needed me." She spoke softly. Morello looked awful. Her brunette hair was dishevelled, her make-up smudged. Evidence of her pain took the form of red-rimmed eyes and tear tracks on the china-doll skin of her cheeks. Nicky had never seen her look so unkempt, and it unnerved her somewhat. Everyone had a different breaking point, and it was a sobering thought to imagine that Lorna had been forced over hers by Mendez.

"I'm sorry, Nicky," She choked. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Nichols edged closer.

"I don't know. I don't know. Oh Nicky, I can't hardly breathe!" Lorna leaned forward, and pressed the palms of her hands into her tear-filled eyes. Nicky tentatively reached out to stroke her back, and Lorna didn't move away from her touch.

"I know you don't wanna tell anyone what happened," She whispered, so quietly that Red had to strain her ears to hear. "But you have to try. Fuck Mendez, he deserves to rot in a jail cell." Lorna shook her head, fresh sobs rising in her throat.

"I just wanna do my time and get outta here." Her reply was equally quiet. "Please Nicky, just let me finish my sentence in peace." Nicky and Red exchanged a glance, and the former nodded. She'd fucked up, and the guilt was chewing at her. She had sold her mother figure out to Mendez just because she was pissed off at her, while Lorna had been raped and hurt and still had said nothing. She couldn't take back her words, but she could make the world right for Lorna.

* * *

That night, after the night guards conducted their count, Nicky tentatively slipped out of her bed. She stuffed a bunch of her clothes and towels under the covers, and padded towards Lorna's cube. The brunette was awake, and clasped Nicky's hand when she slid beside her in the bed.

"How come you ain't asleep?" She asked, her choked voice giving her tears away. Nicky squeezed her hand, pulling Morello close.

"I came to make sure you were okay. Which clearly you're not."

"What're you talking about? I'm good!" Nichols raised her brow. Lorna couldn't possibly even be convincing herself with that act.

"Whatever you say, Morello." She pulled the smaller woman close, until she could feel Lorna's breath tickling the skin of her neck and sense her heartbeat against her chest. They lay in silence for a few minutes before Lorna spoke again.

"I feel like a different person," She whispered.

"Different how?"

"I spent hours in the shower earlier, trying to wash him away. But I can still smell him on my skin, Nichols. It itches." Her words hung heavily in the air, and Nicky had to wipe away a tear from her cheek.

"Babe, let me and Red take care of it, alright? We got this, just trust-" Nicky trailed off mid-sentence as she felt Lorna freeze against her.

"Enjoying your late night rendezvous, ladies?" Mendez's cocky tone cut through the dorm, as he shone his flashlight first into Nichols' eyes, and then Morello's.

"I- we were just-" Lorna stumbled over the words, her doe eyes bright with fear.

"Get back to your own bunk, Nichols. You're both getting shots." The blonde trembled with fury, her fists clenched in an attempt to keep herself from pummelling the bastard to death.

"You know what, Pornstache?" She said, keeping her tone low to avoid waking anyone else up. As angry as she was, she knew that Lorna wouldn't want her to make a scene. "I don't give a fuck what you do to me. You know why? Cause I'm gonna find a way to bring you down." Mendez chucked softly, and lent closer to whisper into Nicky's ear.

"I'm untouchable. It's my word against an ex-junkie inmate who has problems with authority. Besides, it'd be awfully hard for you to bring me down if you're in the SHU." It was Nicky's turn to laugh, and she did so with a bitter note in her voice.

"I've been in SHU before. Like I give a fuck what you do to me."

"No? Well how about this?" He turned to Lorna, who'd been watching Nichols and Pornstache argue with wide eyes. He hungrily swallowed in her dishevelled appearance, thinking back to when he had been close enough to smell her, taste her, corrupt her. "Get dressed, inmate." He addressed her, speaking louder this time. "You're going to solitary."

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**A/N: Sorry this is such a rubbishly short chapter, I just wanted to let you guys know that I have every intention of continuing this story. **

**I just wanted to take a moment to properly thank you all for the reviews. You're all fucking amazing, and I'm so grateful. **

**Until next time!**


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